Something that's on my heart right now...

The Advent Conspiracy - Something that a friend of mine, Rich, has posted about, and his church is participating in... These two videos below are powerful, excellent, thought provoking, so I'm repeating them for anyone who hasn't seen them yet.

My Christmas "shopping" is done, and I planned the gift giving in a slightly different way. No, not giving money to organizations who are supporting the effort of making the world's water more drinkable...yet...(but man, wouldn't it be nice to be able to give a gift like that in someone's name and be confident that they'd be just as excited to know $__ went to that than them getting a gift to open that will eventually be taken for granted, ruined, donated, forgotten?)

I didn't spend nearly as much this year as in years past. There is the nagging thought in the back of my mind that wonders if the receivers will think my gifts are lame, inadequate, etc., but I know that's more my battling my pride (and love of giving gifts... I LOVE both giving and getting gifts, but when we're on a negative budget, you have to get creative. That, and we spend a HUGE amount on travel for the holidays to be with family). So it's a start...

It's hard to battle the "culture" of giving. Getting hints, giving hints, the desire to give our kids a super cool Christmas (or better) than we remember - but what for? Does a two year old really know what to expect? No. Not unless we're teaching our kids that it's all about getting - rather than getting them excited about giving.

Last year I donated and delivered some blankets to the Everett Gospel Mission and had Sarah with me. It was amazing how just having her with me brightened everyone's faces as we walked in the door... I pray that as she grows up she will get see us giving, get to participate in it, see the faces of those receiving, and just take for granted that that's what we do. It is humbling and challenging for me to think that she really learns that concept from us. What am I modeling?

I never want her to think that we always have to have the best, newest (or brand new) of anything. I actually started teaching her this when she was very young and still do it. Sometimes when I am at Target, we go down the toy aisles and just look. Just look. If she wants to touch something, I let her, but I say, "We're not buying that," or "We don't need that." (And like at my MOPS table group's discussion last month on "giving" brought up, I don't say, "We can't afford it," which would be lying because if we really did want it, we could make it happen.) Some might think that this is teasing, but so far it seems to be teaching Sarah that she doesn't need everything she sees. She doesn't throw tantrums because she's used to walking away even when she might rather have it - a discipline her mother still tries to practice regularly.

Sarah's been playing with her Little People nativity since the beginning of November (since it'll only be out two months I figure starting early is good - especially since the music mechanism broke...not having to listen to perpetual Away in the Manger is okay with me. =) She sings it instead!) and really knows that it's ALL about Jesus' birth and worshiping Him. Santa is still a new concept to her... We're not pretending that Santa doesn't exist, but we talk about how Jesus is real, Santa is pretend... I love how it feels when I get to see a concept really sink in when Sarah has no idea she's showing she understands... Case in point. I found this scene not too long ago. All the Little People in the nativity set on their faces - "bowing to Jesus" as Sarah put it...